Routine screening every three years with a Pap test or every five years with a Pap-HPV co-test [the current guidelines for average-risk women] ensures precancerous changes are caught early and may be followed more closely or treated.

African-American women were 50 percent less likely to be up-to-date on cervical cancer screening than white women in 2016. Asian women were nearly 30 percent less likely than white women to be current on screening. These racial disparities are especially concerning.